Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 18

“Well then, I’ll be going now.”

“Ah, yes… Goodbye……”

After parting with Erwen, I headed straight to the library.

The calming scent of paper and ink.

A quiet atmosphere where even a cough felt like it should be suppressed.

Looking at the various weaklings choosing books within, I felt like I was the only out-of-place one, but…

Drrrrrrr-!

Surprisingly, there was another barbarian in the library besides me.

Happy to see him, I approached and poked his back.

“Yan, Bjorn, son of Yandel?!”

It was you after all.

Ainar, the second or third daughter of Fnellin.

“It’s good to see you’re unharmed.”

“You too!”

“…I think we need to lower our voices.”

Ainar must have felt the stares of the people, as she lowered her voice.

“Sorry. I was surprised to see another of my kind here; I didn’t expect it.”

I felt the same way.

“What brings you to the library?”

“Last time, you said to always think and act, right? After wandering around the labyrinth this time, I realized that I need knowledge to think.”

Oh, I see.

That’s quite admirable.

If only he wasn’t sleeping with his nose in an open book.

“Did something happen in the labyrinth?”

“It wasn’t easy from start to finish. Fighting wasn’t the problem, but…”

Ainar continued, with a bitter expression.

“It wasn’t just the monsters I had to be wary of.”

He’s definitely a bit different from the other barbarians. They only brag about how easily they beat the monsters.

They would never say it was hard, even if they were about to die.

“So, you decided to study here.”

“That’s right. But this kind of thing doesn’t really suit me. Reading is too difficult. I should have learned properly when I was younger.”

…Ah, is that where the problem lies?

“So, starting today, I’m going to the holy site to learn to read again from the elders. Now that I’m an adult, I have to pay the price.”

Still, it’s a bit surprising.

That a person could change this much from a casual piece of advice I gave.

Ainar soon closed the book he had open and stood up.

“Are you going right now?”

“If I don’t do it when I think of it, I’ll forget.”

I see.

The more I know, the sadder I feel about their race.

“Then, I’ll be going.”

Ainar, who had briefly said goodbye and was heading towards the exit, turned back as if he had remembered something.

“Ah! Come to think of it, if I came back alive, I was supposed to repay you for your advice. If you need any help, come to the Angry Bull Inn. I’ll help you with anything I can.”

“I will.”

I hope he doesn’t forget this promise in a day or two.

Because I think I’ll need his help soon.

***

After Ainar left, I wandered around the library for a while.

Well, it’s not every day you see a building the size of a national assembly building that’s entirely a library.

Even in the game, the library only had an ‘under construction’ sign and wasn’t accessible.

Hmm, but how do you find a book in a place like this?

It doesn’t seem like you can just type a few things on a keyboard like in modern times and get the location…

Instead of worrying, I decided to ask for help.

“Ahem.”

At the sound of my cough, the librarian who was dozing at the desk slowly opened her eyes.

“What is it?”

“I’m looking for a book. Something related to history……”

“Parsityev.”

Before I could even explain what kind of book I was looking for, the sleepy-looking librarian mumbled.

At the same time, a faint light entered my body.

What, is this magic?

“Now, as you walk around, you’ll be able to find the book you’re looking for. You can’t borrow it, and after you’re done reading, please put it back in its original place.”

As the light faded, the librarian mechanically spat out the words and started dozing off again.

…What the heck is this woman?

I didn’t feel like waking her up again, so I just wandered around the library as instructed.

As I did, I saw books here and there that seemed to draw me in.

I quickly got a sense of what kind of magic it was.

Evil spirits, history, labyrinths, explorers, essences, etc.

Every time I changed the keywords I was thinking about, the books that drew me in also changed.

‘What is this convenient magic?’

With magic like this, it makes sense that there’s only one librarian. In the first place, compared to the size, there were hardly any library users.

I picked out only the books that drew me in the most and opened them one by one.

[The Destroyed World]

The first book I opened, which was nearly 700 pages long, described the early history of this world.

Most of it matched the game.

Thousands of years ago, a witch’s curse made it impossible for life to exist on this land, and only the last fortress, Lapdonia, was spared from the disaster.

To help the starving people with limited resources, the royal family opened a passage to another dimension.

That became the labyrinth of today.

[A Commentary on the Basic Understanding of Alchemy IV]

The second book described how the magic stones from monsters go through a process to become bread, water, and steel.

I didn’t understand any of the principles.

I read the books as they came and crammed the knowledge into my head.

[The Holy Relic War III]

Thanks to that, I learned in more detail why the barbarians and elves have their current relationship, and what evil spirits are.

People believed that evil spirits were evil beings from another dimension that came to take over bodies.

Hmm, come to think of it, that’s not wrong, is it?

[The Evil Spirits of the Abyss]

Unfortunately, this book didn’t describe why evil spirits appear.

However, it did describe in relatively detail how the Lapdonia royal family and the temple have declared evil spirits as targets for extermination and what efforts they have made.

From the evil spirits’ point of view, this was a great tip.

According to the book, as long as you don’t say forbidden words, you’ll hardly be suspected of being an evil spirit.

For example, [Dungeon and Stone].

…I should refrain from shouting Sparta now.

[How Did Explorers Evolve?]

[The Twins of the Lapdonia Royal Family]

[About Heroes]

[The Life of Prisoner Bipron]

After reading books like this for a long time, I was finally able to obtain the information I wanted.

[About the Death of the King]

This book dealt with the death of King Lavigion III, who was called the first king or the immortal king.

However, the various suspicions surrounding it, or the changes that resulted from it, were of no interest to me.

What was important to me was the timing.

Let’s see, the date is…….

“150 years ago……?”

It was the moment my hypothesis was proven correct.

The king’s death date written in the book was about 150 years ago.

In other words, the place I am now is the future, 150 years after the game’s timeline.

No matter which race you chose, the game started the day after Lavigion III died.

Damn it.

I guess I’ll have to live in the library for a while.

“Hoo……”

I closed the book and rested my eyes for a moment.

Even though I only read the important parts, my eyes felt like they were going to pop out after looking through ten books.

But I decided to finish reading the two books I had taken out.

Let’s try a little harder. There might be important information.

[Dimensional Instability Observation Record]

Was this the book that the blonde who saved me when I was crawling on all fours was reading?

The book contained cases and statistics similar to mine.

According to the blonde, falling on the outermost edge is something that happens only once every hundred years, but…….

“Bullshit.”

As someone who has experienced it, I can say that there would have been far more cases than that.

It’s just that most of them died, so we don’t know.

The rest of the content was mostly statistics, so I was flipping through the pages roughly when I stopped at the last chapter.

The author’s speculation that ‘entering the portal at the moment it closes may be related to the instability phenomenon’ was written at the end.

If this is true…….

In the end, it’s my fault.

I felt like I was going to get sad, so I quickly moved on to the next one.

[9th Grade Essence Compendium]

Finally, the last book.

The abilities of the essences that 9th grade monsters spit out were organized like an encyclopedia, but unlike the in-game notation, it didn’t provide information with exact numbers.

[Goblin]

Endurance (Low) Olfactory (Low) Poison Resistance (Low) Dexterity (Low) Vision (Low)

*Permanent paralysis poison when using melee weapons.

*Trap creation.

Looking at other monsters, it seemed that if the stat value was 21 or higher, it was marked as medium…….

There was no way to know the standard value for the high grade.

According to the guide written on the first page, information for 8th grade or higher had to be purchased from the explorer’s guild.

“Hoo……”

I closed the book and stretched briefly.

It was dark outside the window.

It was almost time for the library to close, and there were hardly any users left.

I put all the books I had read back in their original places and returned to the inn.

Then, after a simple meal, I collapsed onto the bed.

With this, the third day in the city had passed.

“27 days left……”

The labyrinth opens at midnight on the 1st of every month.

One month here is exactly 30 days, so that means I have to go back into the labyrinth in about 4 weeks.

“……”

What can I do in the city for the remaining days?

No, what should I do?

As I was organizing these things in my head, I quickly fell asleep.

Tomorrow, I’ll start by finding a new companion.

***

“Mister! Mister! Wake up!”

Erwen came knocking on my door first thing in the morning.

Putting aside the fact that her voice was quite excited…….

‘Why did she come?’

She wouldn’t be saying she’d follow me instead of her sister now, would she?

Honestly, I thought I wouldn’t see her again.

“What is it?”

“Look at this! I succeeded in the contract!”

As soon as I opened the door, Erwen said something completely out of the blue.

“Contract? Ah, did you eat a ‘Spirit Stone’ by any chance?”

A Spirit Stone is an item that allows an elf to contract with spirits of other attributes.

Assuming the user is lucky.

“Yes! After parting with you yesterday, I succeeded in contracting with a new spirit!”

“You were lucky.”

In the game, the price of a Spirit Stone was about 150,000 stones.

The success rate was only 10%.

For her, it was probably a gamble that cost almost all of her fortune, and she succeeded?

“Yes! I did it after about ten tries with the ones my sister bought for me!”

…Damn it, did she come to tease me?

As a barbarian who only inherited this body, I only feel a sense of deprivation.

When we first met, I thought she was a pitiful kid with a younger sibling to take care of, but now I see that she’s a golden spoon [someone born into wealth].

Maybe the bow she had was also bought by her sister.

“By the way, it seems you contracted with a wind spirit.”

“Yes! I was lucky in many ways. Fire and wind go well together!”

“Okay, first, release the summon.”

I said with a sigh.

It would be a lie to say I wasn’t jealous, but it was for a different reason.

“Huh? But I haven’t shown you properly yet……”

“Are you going to make more of a mess here?”

“Ah, ah! I’m sorry!”

Only then did the swirling wind subside.

Ugh, what a mess right after waking up.

As I frowned, Erwen, who had been excited, started to look at me with a worried expression.

“S-Should I clean it up?”

I don’t know why it’s a question.

Was she going to ask me to clean it up?

When I nodded, Erwen quickly cleaned up the messy room.

Surprisingly, it didn’t even take 10 minutes.

Last time, she said she was confident in laundry and cleaning, and that was true.

There was no unnecessary movement.

Like a master in a martial arts novel.

“Should I clean more?”

“……”

“I’ll clean more……”

“No. This is enough.”

To be honest, I don’t think it’s possible to clean more than this.

Somehow, it seems cleaner now than when I first entered the inn room.

Since she did a good job, let’s give her a carrot [a reward].

I have something to ask her later.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t said this yet. Congratulations on contracting with a new spirit.”

“Hehe, thank you!”

“Have you had breakfast?”

“Not yet.”

At the mention of breakfast, we went down to the first floor to eat and talked about the rest.

“What can you do with the wind spirit?”

“I can slightly twist the trajectory of an arrow that has already been shot, or shoot it much faster, things like that!”

Compared to what I expected, it’s quite a one-dimensional way of using it.

Can’t you increase the penetration power by rotating the arrow, or make the sound of the arrow being shot inaudible?

If that were possible, her combat power would increase even more.

“Oh, I haven’t thought about that… but it feels like it might be possible?”

What is with this tone?

I feel inexplicably bad.

“Anyway, you came at a good time. Once you’re done eating, let’s go back up.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I have something to do in the room.”

Erwen tilted her head.

She had a look that said she had no idea what I was talking about…….

“You didn’t think that you had repaid all your debt with that last time, did you?”

“Huh, huh? Wasn’t it?”

She has a naive side to her.

Click.

I locked the door so that no one could enter and sat Erwen on the bed.

“Now, use your ability.”

I need to check if there are any difficulties when using her skills, how long it takes to use them again, what weaknesses are hidden in her stealth ability, and so on.

There’s a mountain of things to check.